So I jumped in my rx to go get dinner tonight. I turned on my headlights, and for a second my gauge lights came on then off. The little green lights for the turn signals still work, and the headlights were still on. So now at night I just kinda gauge my speed off gear/rpm from safc. My guess is the connection at the **** is loose. What are your guys thoughts?

 

does the rest of the light come on when u turn on your headlight to full like outside and interior? if you dash is out and everything else, you might have blown a dome fuse.

 

my dome fuse blow so at night my headlights and turn signal works, but everything else doesnt.

 

ya all of the lights except for the ones that light up the tach, mph, exc. work. I will go check the fuse

 

edit:
so all of the exterior lights do come on, the little green lights for the turn signals come on. I checked the illum and room and both fuses were not blown. I didnt see one for the dome.

 

Same thing happened to me and it was the light switch unfortunately.I had someone rewire it so when the headlights are turned on the dash lights come on but the dial which controls the intensity of the dash lights is over ridden and stays at one intensity(in this case the brightest).I don't know how specifically it was rewired but it can be done and it saves you from either purchasing a new or used light switch if you wanted to go that route.

 

Have you accidentally turned the instrument dimmer right down? If not it's probably the switch.

Satch's solution is a good one, basically the instrument lights are powered from the non-dimming taillight circuit. But I wouldn't do it without first transferring the taillight load to an external relay as described in this thread. The switch's internal relay is already prone to failure, so the extra load would not be good for it.

 

Agreed. Exact same thing happened to me years ago. I did the same trick, by-pass the switch by jumpering a hot wire to the wire that runs the dash lights. The harness to the switch may be burnt too. Mine wasn't but I've heard of others who's were. It's a cheap fix, but because the dash lights were always on I sometimes forgot to turn the headlights on. I eventually replaced mine. I got an extra one from my parts car now too. PM me if you are interested.

 

Electricity in cars are a pain because if one connection is lost, it WILL find another to go around and it won't work; but will. Gauge clusters have lots of wires to go around. If one thing doesn't work, and another does, it might be because the other line is running down the first one, causing a short...

 

No. Just no...

 

i dont know guys I had lights last night when I went home and I didnt do anything. Atleast I have a safc to go off rpms when the lights go out again haha

 

just double check that your tailights come on when the car is running
if the light switch is fried the signals, head light, and brake lights will all still work but the rear tail lights won't stay lit if the switch is fried, which is dangerous as hell at night

 

thats why you do what i did make a switch for you tail lights and get a little clip light for your dash lights lol.. but thats just for now i will fix it later